Zoho has built a wide range of office programs for the web: word processor, spreadsheet, presentation. Basically a replication of the entire Microsoft Office suite. They even have a wiki program. Without any plugins or downloads, you can log on to create, save and edit documents, with all the usual tools and functions you’re accustomed to. You can make your docs public or private, or public within a private group. And you can still export the documents to word, excel and the like, if needs be.
Here’s an example document that I started: zoho.png
Google does this as well although it appears they only have a word processor and spreadsheet application.
Why would anyone pay for a Microsoft Office license anymore, between increasingly adaptable web-based applications and open-source software (if you don’t know, you can download the completely free OpenOffice, or order the software on CD’s by mail, here).
Microsoft is losing ground in the web browser market too. Mozilla’s Firefox now has 25% marketshare and growing. So where is Microsoft going? Well, there’s been rumors the last few weeks of Microsoft attempting to purchase Yahoo.
Another web company, Wesabe, is going after financial software Quicken– with it, you can balance all your accounts online. And because it’s online, you can also share tips and advice with other users who shop in the same places you do.
Also, Picnik allows you to edit photos online, and apparently Adobe is building Photoshop for the web.
Some positive/negative implications of online progams:
Positive:
- Easy to share and co-edit documents. No need for attachement anymore.
- Saving to the server acts as an automatic backup system. With all your docs online, you don’t have to worry about your hard drive going bust. This in fact is what a lot of people are doing with their photos on Flickr– using it as back up system.
- It is free. Well, for now anyway.
Negative:
- Privacy: do you want a third-party to hold all your data, including word doc, excel sheets and financials? Not sure, but Tim O’Reilly made a good point in the podcast i mentioned a couple days ago: credit card companies have had this personal information for years– they know everything you purchase and even call you when they find an activity suspicious– and people seem fairly used to this.
- Security: If people can hack into your accounts, would you write biz and confidential docs online?
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